I don't want to go outside of Trillian but this looks tempting. It's not like I can count on a future update to Trillian with a Richenbacher bass, but since maybe their biggest competitor has one now, there is a better chance of them filling in the hole?

NI's (Scarbee) Rick sounds good - but one can't wonder why sample just
the 4003. NI market this "the legendary sound" but in my books the 4003
is only half on the Rick legend, at least as important Rick sound is the more round 4001 sound with the "horseshue" pickup - and of course the most famous ambassador of this sound is (was) Paul McCartney (just listen great variey of his different Rick sounds in bass lines in e.g. Nowhere man, Lucy in the Sky, Good Morning, Dear Prudence, Piggies, Glass Union - all differet but at the same time just fantastic Rick sounds/Geoff Emeric mic setups). H.

Yes - (!) - he was/is real beast and had his very own Rick sound. Rickebacker coperated with him and created Chris Squire artist model based on the 4001.
Makes me wonder why create and market a product as "official rock lengend" and "iconic sound" and include e.g. Lenny but exclude Paul and Chris.
Or was this just the Scarbee Rick vol. 1???
H,

I agree. Chris Squire had the most memorable sound from that bass. Everyone that I worked with that played a Rick never got enough of that Fender "bottom punch" like from the old P-Basses run thru a couple of tube SVT's.

THE MODEL 4003:
Until the 70's all basses had flat wound strings but then Rotosound revolutionized the string market by introducing the Roundwound string - that had much more brilliance. A lot of bass players wanted to use these new strings - also the Rickenbacker players. However - the 4001 was not built for the this - the neck did not deal well with the added pull from these strings so the action would be bad. At the same time producers like Nile Rodgers from Chic started to drop the bass cutoff on the album masters and the trend was that you could now have much more BASS in the mix. Also Amps and cabinets were developed so they could give you more punch. Rickenbacker addressed this by cutting less bass from the Bridge pickup in the 4003 model.
NI and SCARBEE decided to have Rotosound Roundwound strings on - and we also wanted the extra bass punch of the bridge pickup - so the 4003 was only and natural choice.
PS. On 4003 you can pull the Bridge (called treble) tone control and then you get 4001 sound - its just a simple bass cut and you can do that in plugin by using the EQ if you really want a thinner sound of the Bridge pickup....

THE SOUND
This is MY sound as a bass player. I used original Rickenbacker pickups on the 4003 - otherwise we could not the the official license right?
Every bass player has his way of playing: string brand/gauge, pick brand/thickness and playing position.
Some famous played play just over the neck pickup, some over the bridge, some behind the bridge and some between the pickups. Its all about taste. If over the bridge or behind it you get less growl as strings will vibrate less.
My playing position was just in front of the bridge - close to between the pickups as I wanted some growl when needed.
The Palm muted was recorded only place possible - over the bridge.
About Chris Squire: he pinches the strings with pick+nail. Its a very special sound with lots of added harmonics.
You can find a video interview on Youtube.

To do any combinations of players you would need several sample sets - it took us 2 years to complete project - so spending 10 years on this would be overkill right? I love this sound - and so does many others.

The Paul McCartney sound - he uses flat wound strings -so no need to switch to 4003. He also palm mutes.
I first had flat wounds on bass and could 100% emulate his sound using the 4003. he switches between all 3 pickup settings in songs. We wanted to be able to do the hi-treble rock sound using Roundwound strings - and then the palm muted technique could get very close to the sound of a palm muted flatwound string sound. The difference is that with our bass sound you still here fret noise and some fret growl when sliding.

Then you have the amps - they change the whole thing - and we have so many options with the plugin!

About round robins and velocity - we developed a unique system for that. Ex there are up to 20 individual samples of down-strokes alone pr. note... then add a smart round robin system..

In any case - its all about your ears - if you don't like the sound - don't buy it. If you like it - go for it.

BTW: You can not get an official license without sending a lot of audio examples for review...you know what i mean?
This sounds like a Rickenbacker..

MM BASS
This doesn't use round robin system so to avoid mechanic playing if you play same velocity - you need to change velocities..

As said, your (NI) Rick sounds very good - the only confusion
was targeted to the advertisment of the product: it gives the impression
of THE ultimate "iconic Rick sound", used many "rock legends".
And yet you exclued some of the most famous Rick sounds out of this product.

Of course choises has to be made, I'm sure that you had enough work with
this 4003 sampling. But the "iconic" Rickenbacker sound was not covered with this product. Can we possible see/hear 4001 sampled by the Scarbee?

And finally: although there's written some critsims, the old makerting
rule is "better talk than silence".